Press Release

Robin & Barry Dransfield's first new release since 1978, now out on Free Reed The release of Robin and Barry Dransfield's new double-CD on Free Reed - 'Up to Now' (FRDCD 18)- features the legendary duo's very first newly available recordings since the vinyl issue of 'Popular to Contrary Belief' on Free Reed, way back in 1977. The 39-track/two and a half hours package includes 11 new and unissued tracks from long-lost BBC John Peel Shows and ''In Concert'" sessions from the 1970s, featuring the boys as a duo, as soloists, and with many rare recordings of their fine electric band 'Dransfield'. There are nine tracks from their first Free Reed album 'Popular to Contrary Belief'- arguably their best acoustic work - and two tracks from the classic1976 electric album 'The Fiddler's Dream' - now a welcome CD re-release on Castle's 'Transatlantic Essentials' series, ESMCD 462, together with un-issued covers of many other songs featured on this classic album../FONT> And that's not all! - So as to create a serious and definitive retrospective of these most seminal of British folk music performers, Free Reed's Neil Wayne has located a wealth of rare and lost tracks: from their 1970 'Folk on Friday' debut recording; from Robin and from Barry's solo albums on Topic; and on the old Polydor/FolkMill label; and from the boys' performances on Free Reed's 'Tale of Ale' and Island's epic 'Morris On' album - arguably the birth of British folk-rock!. Some of the real jewels in this package are the inclusion of two tracks from each of the Dransfields' ground-breaking first two LPs on Bill Leader's Trailer label, recorded back in 1970 & 1971. These recordings have been thankfully conserved, along with many other of the most important recordings of Britain's early Folk Revival, in Dave Bulmer & Neil Sharpley's Leader Archives, and thanks to Dave and Neil, these tracks from 'Lord of all I Behold' and 'Rout of the Blues' are at last seeing light of day some 15 years after their untimely deletion. To bring this 'History of the Dransfields' bang up to date, Free Reed has included choice tracks from Barry Dransfield's two marvellous solo LPs on the respected Rhiannon label - 'Be Your Own Man' (RHYD 5003), and 'Wings of the Sphinx' (RHYD 5010) - with brother Robin adding the odd harmonies, and which brings their 'long strange trip' through 27 years at the heart of the British folk scene right "Up to Now"! As you'd expect from a Free Reed release, the double-CD package comes complete with a detailed 24-page booklet, with a complete discography of the Dransfields, session details and dates of all the tracks, and reproductions of all the original sleeves. Central to the booklet is a fascinating memoir of the whole history of Robin and Barry's music since their earliest recordings by the doyen of Folk writers Colin Irwin - himself almost a veteran of the British Folk scene - in which he links together the stories that lie behind the wealth of rare recordings on the double CD. "Up to Now" was released on June 15th 1997. - Retail Price £17.99, with distribution by CMD, Direct, Front Hall (USA) , Sidestreet (USA), Tambourine (Japan) and from Free Reed.

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